傳槥──秦漢國家對歸葬鄉里的制度設定與文書行政

Transporting Coffins (chuan hui): The Institutional Management and Administrative Procedures of Returning the Deceased to Their Hometowns during the Qin and Han Dynasties

秦漢時期，國家對戍卒及服役、徭使於外地的吏民、徒隸等特加優撫，規定上述群體中因公而死者由縣官提供槥並傳送其屍身歸葬鄉里。近年來先後公布的幾批秦漢簡牘從不同側面補充了以往文獻片斷記載的不足，為更全面地認識槥及傳槥相關制度提供了可能。槥是一種主要用於盛斂和運送亡者屍骨的簡易木匣，其規格小於一般的棺且更輕便，在大規模災害發生時，亦偶見用於葬埋。作轉運時除裝殮遺體外可能還同時盛裝死者隨身衣器遺物，傳槥之前，縣官先製作參辨券記錄遺物種類和數量等訊息，參辨券由死所、隨行吏員及槥內分別留存一份。秦律規定，因公死者所在地的縣官要負責提供槥，將死者名縣爵里訊息刻、書於槥及隨行文書，並加以封印。本文根據新舊文獻的記載，從不同片斷還原了自死亡呈報直至遺體被送歸故里全過程所涉及的文書行政諸環節，從中可見秦漢國家為保障異地亡者順利運抵原籍所作的嚴謹而繁密的制度設定。作為文書類型專名的「槥書」的存在目前資料條件下尚無法得到確認，當暫以通名指稱為宜。傳槥涉及的行政流程與服役結束歸鄉的罷卒的經歷類似，民眾的鄉里觀念和行政力塑造的「名縣爵里」身分標識在傳槥過程中合二為一。中古律令及後世文獻表明，歸葬鄉里的國家行為被秦漢以後的王朝所繼承，形成一種制度傳統。傳槥這一現象，應當從國家對於民眾亡魂回歸故里的觀念信仰所作的制度性保障這一視角來理解。

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the central government gave preferential treatment to garrison soldiers and corvée laborers (i.e., officials, commoners, and convicts), stipulating that local governments were to provide hui 槥 (transport coffins) to those from among these groups that had died on duty and transport their corpses from the frontiers back to their hometowns for burial. Recently excavated bamboo slips reveal an enormous amount of new details concerning hui as well as the institution of coffin transportation, making it possible to depict a more complete picture of this system. Smaller than guan 棺 (burial coffins), hui were simple wooden boxes mainly used to transport the body. They were also seen as a burial implement but only on occasions when severe natural disasters occurred. Moreover, when used as a transport coffin, hui transported the material remains of the deceased, such as clothing. Prior to the delivery of hui, local governments first made sanbian quan 參辨券 (three-part wooden tallies) that recorded the category and number of the remaining items as well as personal information of the deceased; the local government and officials who had accompanied the transportation of hui both retained a copy, with the third being left in the coffin. According to Qin legal regulations, local governments were to inscribe the name, origin, rank, and other identifying information onto both the coffins and accompanying documents. In this paper, I reconstruct the administrative processes of transporting the deceased to their hometowns, notably from the reporting of death until burial. When doing so, I have discovered a complex and rigorous institutional system designed to ensure the safe arrival of the corpses to their destinations. I contend that, in light of current textual evidence, hui shu 槥書 (transport coffin documents) do not constitute a set genre of official communication. Furthermore, the administrative impulse to transport the deceased is comparable, in my view, to that of the frontier soldiers and laborers' desire to return home after the completion of their duties. Within the institutional system of coffin transportation, the customary idea that hometowns comprised one's identity found an analogue in administrative procedure. Legal texts of the medieval and later periods demonstrate that subsequent dynasties adopted the political tradition of returning the deceased to their hometowns by means of hui. This practice should be understood as an institutional assurance of the customary belief that the spirits of the dead should return to their origins.